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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Blu Homes Gets a Huge Influx of Money

Blu Homes, the prefabricated homes company based in Waltham, MA and San Francisco, CA
just closed its first institutional round of investment at $60 million.

The company's homes "feature bright, open floor plans,
soaring ceilings and the latest in green and energy-saving technology"
which can "drop a family’s carbon footprint, energy use and water use by
up to 70 percent."

The company said its proprietary building science technology
allows its homes to be folded for quick and inexpensive transportation are
built in a 250,000 sq ft converted shipbuilding plant in Vallego, CA.

The Company says the funds will go toward expanding sales
and marketing and to continue development in technology and design, the company
said. The funding was led by Netherlands-based Skagen Group, and brings the
company to $69 million total raised since its founding in 2008.

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I guess those Blu folks are pretty good sales people! The question now is how fast they will run through that money and/or what they will really use it for. While they say expand sales wanna bet much will be use for day to day operating costs?

The investors must have been told a whopper of a story for a company the size of a miniature pony to get $60 million. They could have bought a real modular company with a proven track record of profit for less than half that amount.

This business model makes no sense to anyone in the modular or building business. They have solved a problem with a solution that is more expensive than the problem, and are limited to cookie cutter designs that are unattarctive to all but a fringe buyer. With 3 factories in 5 years, but limited sales to mainly family and friends, how does this make any sense? Yet, they have raised enough capital to buy half of the existing industry's capacity. What are we missing? Or what are the investors missing?

The folding design is nothing new. The reason you do not see more of it - no advantages. On their video they could have shipped 80% complete mods via one additional load of freight and final cost being less than using their " sales tool" . The ultimate losers - their international investors and those legit companies who need capital but will not get it when Blu ultimately closes.

The people at Blu Homes are brilliant! They convinced industry outsiders to invest $60,000,000 in sales and marketing efforts for a home that is without a doubt the dumbest house ever conceived. The money is not earmarked for expanding factory production or buying other companies. It's simply cash being dumped in for increasing sales. I would love to be in charge of that pot of money with nobody having any idea what I'm going to do with it.I can't imagine the people that own real modular factories aren't asking themselves "why Blu Homes and not me?"This investment won't help build a better Blu Home, it will only disappear in a couple of years with nothing to show for the effort.

The people at Blu Homes are brilliant! They convinced industry outsiders to invest $60,000,000 in sales and marketing efforts for a home that is without a doubt the dumbest house ever conceived. The money is not earmarked for expanding factory production or buying other companies. It's simply cash being dumped in for increasing sales. I would love to be in charge of that pot of money with nobody having any idea what I'm going to do with it.I can't imagine the people that own real modular factories aren't asking themselves "why Blu Homes and not me?"This investment won't help build a better Blu Home, it will only disappear in a couple of years with nothing to show for the effort.

Not to mention that the steel frame they use to create enough strength to fold is a horrible thermal bridge in their walls. But hey - they are using steel studs as well, which Building Science has pretty much written off as impossible to insulate in the wall cavity space. I suppose a move from Mass. to Calif. solved that building science problem...

Hey, I am very happy that it wasn't taxpayer dollars. I believe what we see here is a prime example of how Bain Capital worked. If Blu fails we as taxpayers don't take it in the wallet aka Solendra and others. I applaud Blu for NOT holding out their hands to the government and I hope they do very well.

This company is a disgrace to the industry.The homes are merely set furnishings, which if actually used, quickly show their lack of durability and longevity. To say nothing of the severely inflated worth for such gimicky faux buildings.Like the Pied Piper, Blu continues to attract the fat rats to follow. (Ultimately to all their own financial losses)